Retired Taiwanese spy arrested while traveling in China

AFP, TAIPEI

China held a retired Taiwanese intelligence agent for four months earlier this year after he arrived in China as a tourist, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The retired agent, in his 60s and identified only by his surname Wu (吳), was apprehended by Chinese officials while traveling in northeast China in February, the Chinese-language United Daily News said.

“He was not allowed proper sleep and given no chance to rest well,” the paper said, citing one of Wu’s friends, who added that he was not physically tortured.

“Few people can take such pressure. He lost a lot of weight,” his friend said.

At one point, Wu was taken to Yunnan Province for a confrontation with two colonels from Taiwan’s Military Intelligence Bureau incarcerated since 2006, apparently on suspicion of spying, the paper said.

Officials from the Ministry of National Defense and the Mainland Affairs Council could either not be reached or declined to comment.

Last year, the Taipei-based Apple Daily cited National Security Bureau Secret Service Center Deputy Director Chang Kan-ping (張堪平) as warning retired agents to “never go to China” because of the risk of arrest or interrogation there.

It said Chang was prompted to write the note because “many” former agents were being held in China. The official did not give an exact figure.